


What Makes You Difficult Makes You Great

by AnaBolyn



Series: CFTM-Verse [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A Healthy Skywalker Family Dynamic, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, I will stand for no more character assasination of Luke Skywalker, Mentioned Anakin Skywalker, Mentioned Leia Organa, Mentioned Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, What if the Jedi got therapy?, because he loves his family, because this still kinda reads like canon, including his dumbass nephew, saving what we love, they're vampires but it really doesn't matter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:20:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25025320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnaBolyn/pseuds/AnaBolyn
Summary: In which Ben and Luke are at a crossroad, and take a better path.A Cry for the Moon prequel that nobody asked for.
Series: CFTM-Verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812145
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	What Makes You Difficult Makes You Great

Ben’s had everything ready to sneak out for the last day. The Knights of the First Order came all the way out to Ach-To just to meet him, just to bring him into their fold. Everything’s ready, he only has a half hour to wait before he needs to leave. With any luck, Luke will be asleep and he can be out of here before he even knows it. Off to… wherever it is they’re taking him. The secrecy bothers him, but it won’t matter for long. Soon enough, he’ll know exactly where their base is. Quietly, Ben unlatches the window, and slides out into the night. He’s just about to dash across the lawn when the light in Luke’s gazebo flicks on. 

_Shit._ he thinks to himself. Ben’s entire plan hinged on Luke teaching a class or doing whatever it is he does, not the meditation gazebo. Ben makes a break for the other way, he knows he can scale that wall, he just doesn’t want to with the bag. But he has to go now or he’ll miss his ride. 

“Ben?” he hears his uncle call out for him, and sprints faster, just making it to the wall when Luke appears before him in a puff of smoke.

“You’re trying to run, aren’t you?” 

“Why do you care?” 

“Because for one, I’m your uncle of course I care, but also I know something’s wrong. So why don’t you join me in the gazebo, and we can discuss this like adults.’ 

“You don’t know anything! You’ve had everything given to you, your position, your academy, this fucking mansion. All you’ve ever wanted. By the time you were my age, you held a council position!” Ben screams, and the fearless Luke Skywalker takes a step back. Ben holds his chin higher, hoping his foolish uncle will let him go without a fight.

“I held a council position because my predecessor did exactly what you’re about to do right now.” 

“Well maybe he was on to something!”

“Yeah, he was seduced by the power and the prestige. He went to them because he liked watching anyone and everyone suffer under his hands. Palpatine was an evil man, Ben. And you are so many things, but you are not evil.”

“He did what he had to do.” 

“He killed at least thirty people, Ben. A good number of them were children. Ben, that’s not you.” Luke stares sternly into his nephew’s eyes, unwavering. Ben hesitates. 

“I won’t have to do what he did.” 

“And you know this because?” 

“Because they wouldn’t make me do that.” 

“Yeah, and your grandfather said the same thing to Obi Wan. Yet here we are, decades later and we’re discussing the extent to which he did it.” 

“You don’t know me.” 

“You’re right. You’re growing into a young man and I still sometimes see you as the little boy who got concerned when the human kids didn’t have to wear as much sunscreen as he did. I can’t see the future and know who exactly you’ll be, but I know it won’t be anyone so hateful as to go with that monster. I see you’re hurt. I don’t know why you’re hurt, but I’d like to know if you’d tell me. And Ben, I promise to do all in my power to help you because I love you.” Luke cautiously takes a step forward and holds out a hand. Ben stares at him for a while, looking like he’s either about to run or cry when he does something that surprises even himself. 

He cries into his uncle’s shoulder, who shockingly enough returns the hug and pats him on the back. It’s like a dam broke, and everything from the past two years comes spilling out. Every screaming fit, every door slammed, every wall hit, and every time he’s asked himself _why._

“Luke why’d they send me away?” Ben sniffles and chokes out the question that’s been on his mind every day since he arrived here in Ach-To.  
“Let’s go to the gazebo and we can talk.” Luke pats him on the shoulder one more time and keeps his hand there, a comforting gesture rather than a containing one. Under the safe roof of the structure he’s zoned out during almost every lecture he’s been subjected to, he finally listens.

“Now your mother, she’s brilliant in many ways. Obviously she’s managing this whole war thing with Snoke. But there’s some things she’s never going to really understand.” Luke says, taking a drink of that awful fermented hippie stuff he drinks. 

“Like me?” 

“Yes, and no. In a way You are so much like your grandfather, before the whole Palpatine thing. You’re stubborn, passionate, and I think the sheer number of fights you’ve gotten into here speaks to how hot headed you are.” 

“So she couldn’t handle me being like him?” 

“No, she couldn’t handle you being like _her._ ” 

“Bullshit.” 

“No bullshit. I think you’ve got a bit more empathy than she does, but it didn’t change that you turned 13 and became a fully fledged little hellbeast that was a damn near carbon copy of what she was like at that age. I’m amazed she made it as long as she did, with the whole war thing and every time she turned around you were up to some new thing that she didn’t understand.” 

“So that means…?” Ben trails off.

“It means you did almost exactly what she did. If you tell her she’ll deny it, but Leia wreaked havoc here just like you did back in Chandrila. And I wish Obi Wan was here for me to tell him I finally understand. But everything about you that makes you difficult is also what makes you great. It’s all in how you channel it.” 

Ben misses his ride to wherever the First Order was going to take him. He assumes he’ll find them some day, but not like that. He spends the last few hours of the night and the early moments of dawn with Luke, talking about everything that’s been bothering or hurting him. And Luke listens and cares. By the time they head inside to round up the little kids and get them to bed, they have a plan for his future. Luke agrees Ben is ready for more of a leadership position, but wants him to see a therapist first. And when Leia visits that weekend, things aren’t so tense. 

And for the first time in years, Ben feels hope.

**Author's Note:**

> Whew, so fun fact this was never intended to be posted, as I feel it has nothing to do with Cry for the Moon and it even almost reads like the canon. It existed in a google doc with a few other prequel type things to Cry for the Moon that are mostly to get things on paper so I will write, and also because I love making big men be soft and loving. But after seeing that thing on Twitter that if you haven't seen look for at your own risk, I felt we needed some good Uncle Luke. I feel like as much as Luke feared Kylo Ren, he regretted what he did to Ben and still loved him. I see this as another in character route Luke could have taken when he did what he did to Ben in the canon. To me, Star Wars at its core is about love, redemption, and a family that just can't help but get everybody involved in their drama.


End file.
